Demethylasterriquinone is a natural product that was discovered by Merck to have the ability to activate the insulin receptor, and thereby to act orally in glucose lowering in mouse models of diabetes. They have also shown that this compound can activate the TrkA nerve growth factor (neutrophin) receptor. They have further developed a synthetic version identified as “Compound 2” below. See generally Zhang et al., Science 284, 974–977 (1999); Liu et al., J. Med. Chem. 43, 3487–3494 (2000).

U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,488 to Tang et al. proposes synthesis of mono- and bis-indolylquinones using alkali conditions and metal carbonates.
Harris, et al., A One-Pot, Two-Step Synthesis of Tetrahydro Asterriquinone E, Organic Letters 1999, 1(3):431–433 discusses a procedure similar to the '488 patent to produce asterriquinone E.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,780,496 to Tang et al. proposes the utility of indolylquinones as agents for treatment of protein tyrosine kinase cell proliferative disorders.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,058 to Zalkow et al. proposes targeting Cdc25 with seco-cholestane derivatives.
Ono et al., Inhibition of HIV-Reverse Transcriptase Activity by Asterriquinone and its Analogues, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1991, 174(1):56–62, discusses the ability of asterriquinone and asterriquinone derivatives B1-4, C1-1 and D-1 to inhibit HIV-reverse transcriptase.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,376,529 to Tang et al. proposes the use of monoindolylquinones and bisindolylquinones to treat PTK-related cell proliferative disorders and diabetes mellitus.